Proceedings Article | 7 April 2008
Proc. SPIE. 6933, Smart Sensor Phenomena, Technology, Networks, and Systems 2008
KEYWORDS: Bridges, Sensors, Fiber Bragg gratings, Structural health monitoring, Fiber optics sensors, Fiber reinforced polymers, Fiber optics, Smart structures, Temperature sensors, Transducers
Fiber optical (FO) sensors, especially fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, have been considered as prominent high-durable
local monitoring sensors and largely applied in structural health monitoring (SHM). However, it is still a big problem how to
develop the feasible optical fiber sensors to fully meet the practical SHM for infrastructures. In this paper, some recent
advances of fiber optical sensors developed and applied in bridge monitoring in mainland China, especially in Harbin
Institute of Technology, are introduced. The main content include direct FBG-based sensors, indirect FBG-based sensors,
FBG based smart structures, and their implementations in over 10 practical case studies of bridge monitoring, which include
Yonghe River Bridge in Tianjin, Binzhou and Dongying Yellow River Bridges and Province, Songhua River Bridge, Hulan
River bridge and NiutouShan bridge in Heilongjiang Province, Nanjing third Yangtze river Bridge, Maocaojie Bridge in
Hunan Province, Erbian bridge in Sichuan and Guangyangdao Bridge in Chongqing, etc. Besides, F-P sensors have been
used in Da-Fu-Si bridges and Wufu Bridges, etc. Finally, some directions of researches and applications have been
recommended. Researches and practical applications show that FBG sensors are becoming one of the key sensors in long-term
SHM instead of some conventional electrical sensors.
